Thursday, 16 June 2011

Vancouver Riots: 8,000+ People Join Cleanup Group on Facebook

Image from yfrog/Lisa JohnsonSoon after the Vancouver Canucks lost game seven of the Stanley Cup hockey series to the Boston Bruins, rioting broke out. As the violence became more intense, we found numerous pictures on photo-sharing sites such as Twitpic and yfrog.As you can see in the picture above and in the gallery below, a car was set on fire, a truck was flipped over, and when police entered the area of downtown Vancouver with full riot gear, crazed fans were throwing beer bottles and shoes at their plastic shields, according to CTV News.As the rioting intensified, so did the volume of user content on Twitter and Facebook. Even the Vancouver Police Department used Twitter to express its disappointment, tweeting, “So sad watching our #VPD cars on fire and how quickly people can turn from law abiding to law breaking. #canucksriot.”

Via Twitter, the VPD also encouraged witnesses of the riot to hold onto their photos and videos so they can later identify suspects in them. On Thursday, the VPD plans to tweet instructions on how to submit photos and videos as evidence.Some rioters posed for pictures that were subsequently posted on Facebook, which may allow police to catch rioters more easily in the aftermath.